I had no idea where I was going when I started this artwork. I felt lost for most of the process, just making up each component on the spot. But slowly the puzzle came together with each piece.
The task was to imitate an artwork as precisely as possible and then to transform it through repetition. I picked a sketch by Australian artist Jeffrey Smart because I liked the irony of painstakingly copying a spontaneous sketch he did on a train in Tokyo.
The next step was to keep repeating the image in different ways, exploring it graphically and transforming it with each iteration. I used different papers, pens and pencils, focusing on different elements from the original sketch. I even soaked some of the paper in leftover coffee to get some interesting brown tones.
After this, I built these smaller pieces into a larger work on a board. This process was completely unplanned, but the materials I used gave me some direction. The key part was some cardboard I got from my favourite cafe bakery -- I especially liked the handwritten word "home" on it (the cafe is @homecroissanterie).
Smart had been far from home when he made the sketch, but I was making my work in his home country, and the cafe has often felt like a home away from home for me. Increasingly, I find that those little connections really drive my work and give pieces like this special meaning.
Bit by bit, the piece revealed itself. It grew all over the board, in layers and hanging off the edges.
It even entered the digital space. I made a quick and dirty animation of some of the main motifs in the Jeffrey Smart sketch that really brought the whole work to life. I think of the flickering of the animation as an imitation of the passing scenery from a train window, mimicking what Smart might have witnessed during his travels.
I dismantled the entire assemblage after taking a few photos, so these pictures are the only evidence of its completed form.
